a new understanding of today, time and space.

perhaps, perhaps the question of America is not a political question
but a religious question……

the overall understanding of history since the 1500 or the modern era
is the transference of faith from the religious/god to the
secular/nation/nationalism… we have seen this played out in the history of
America since 1776… the attempt has been to transfer the allegiance of its
citizens from god/religion to the state……. this attempt of transference of
allegiance has been the history of the last 500 years…

the problem of faith has been a long one in western civilization…
and the problem with faith is simply this, what happens when one
loses faith? we have seen this loss of faith in America for decades……

but what will/should replace our faith in America? the answer has been
some vain attempt to replace that lost faith with a return to the faith
of our fathers, a return to faith in god/religion…

but as some has noted, you can’t go home again……

how shall we replace our faith in country?
we have gone from faith in god/religion to country…
Marx made his famous attempt to replace faith in god/religion
with faith in dialectical materialism…with faith in the impersonal
forces of history… all you have to do with stand with this mystical force
of history and you too will be saved… for Marxism is simply a secular
faith… as has been long been noted by just about everyone…

the question of modern society is simply a question of “what shall we believe?”

“what shall WE believe?”

it is a collective question of what the many should hold sacred…

I cannot hold to any sort of metaphysical belief in some god or religion
but I also cannot hold to any sort of metaphysical belief in America…
which makes me the real atheist… one can deny god and religion
in America today but deny to deny the highest belief possible which is
in the divinity of America and you have committed the greatest act
of heresy known to the modern world… that is the faith of the secular
world… where one can deny god/religion with less consequences then
denying one’s faith in America… for denying the greatness of America
means the risk of being called un-American or being called a traitor or
being called an deserter or a deceiver or conspirator a “Benedict Arnold”…
and in the modern world, those names are worse then committing any
sort of religious heresy which gets one excommunicated from a church…
defy the American faith and one can get jail or shot or hunted down like
an animal or threatened…

the greatest crime in the modern world is insubordination
and denying the greatness of America is the greatest act
of insubordination known today……

which, in part, shows us the weakness in modern man
in the modern political world…… for if one believes,
truly believes, then the comments of a non-believer shouldn’t matter,
but because the faith is so weak in America that any, any denial of the greatness
of America is grounds for an attack upon the negator of America greatness…

we have suffered the loss in god/religion and now we are presently
suffering the loss of faith in the political realm, in the greatness of America…
and in what shall we believe in after the loss of belief in god/religion and
loss of faith in America?

shall we return to some sort of faith in some ism or ideology or, or shall
we engage in some honest reflection into the nature of faith and what we
should be holding belief/faith in…

what do you hold faith in and conversely, what should you be holding faith in?

“What should we believe in?”

Kropotkin

I have over the beginning of this thread, engaged in various
idea’s and one of the those idea’s is the idea that everything,
life, objects, the planet, indeed the entire universe is transitory,
temporary… and that we humans are just as transitory,
including our souls… there is nothing that is permanent,
everlasting in the universe……

that can be understood in another fashion… we are born,
we live and we die… the thing that happens between birth
and death can be understood as a process…at every moment of
our existence, we are in the process of change…physically, I
am a different person today, then I was 20 or 15 or 10 years ago or even
a year ago… that movement from birth to death is a process and everything
is a process… the earth changes yearly, weekly, daily and even by the minute or
the second… as does everything changes… now some change takes a long time…
change or process isn’t uniform or happens at the same rate… My rate of
change is different then another persons which is different then the change/process
of things like the sun or the earth or water or rocks…

things look permanent because their rate of change is very slow, almost
undetectable, imperceptible to human’s senses……

but the change/process is there even if we don’t see it……

and we must engage with this process even if we cannot see or understand
what the process will bring us to…….

now we have Buddhism in which the primary fact of existence is
suffering… but understood correctly, suffering is simply another
aspect of the process of life… to live is to suffer… simple as that…

so we don’t need to overly emphasize suffering as a key or essential aspect
of life… life means suffering… so move along and accept this suffering
as part of the gig of being human……

it is not escape from suffering that we must attend to, we cannot escape
suffering… but we must engage in the process…… that is the one truly
universal event of existence… the process… now for everyone and everything,
the process is different… for humans, our process is different then dogs or
cats or elephants or rocks or the planet earth or the sun or even the universe…

evolution is the story of the process of life and geology is the process
of the story of the earth and psychology is the process of the mind,
and history is the process of how humans engaged with each other and
how we asked and answered various questions of human existence……
and philosophy is the process of understanding the basic questions of
existence like the Kantian/Kropotkin questions…….

there is no objective point or place in the universe because everything in
the universe is part and parcel of change/process…

we cannot write an objective history of anything because everything
is in process/changing… the only question becomes changing from something…
to something…we humans are in the process of change from something to something…
we are born… that is the starting place but only in a fairly modest starting point
because the story of life, the story of every single human being has a beginning back
when life itself started… you cannot state that, for example, Kropotkin’s story
solely began when he was born…no, my story can be run back into time, to
the beginning of human beings and even before that to the fall of dinosaurs and
the rise of mammals and even further back to the rise of life on earth…
and as my story, my personal story goes back to the rise of life on earth,
frankly, my story goes further back, to the creation of the solar system
and even further back to the notion that our solar system isn’t the first
star to exists in this spot… we were form from an exploding star, a supernova
that happened billions of years ago in this spot and even before that,
our story can be told as the big bang…………. we are made up of
atoms and if there is one thing, that has existed since the beginning of time
and will exist to the end of time, is atoms… but atoms don’t have any form…
the just float aimlessly in the universe and are given form by the forces of
the universe, heat, light, gravity………it is by the force of gravity, that
combines the dust of the supernova that helped create our current
solar system… we are process brought to life… and the
process that help create us is the forces that were created by the big bang…

the four fundamental forces of the universe which created us is,
the gravitational force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force
and the strong nuclear force…

and those forces worked on individual atoms helping them to
combine into such things as stars and planets and humans and cats…

is it possible that there are other forces besides these four basic forces?

of course, in fact, I would suggest that there are other forces beyond
the four elementary forces we have right now……

so, as we engage in our understanding of the processes that have
created us and our world, we can engage in an understanding
of what really matters… and that is the processes that
exists in the universe… it isn’t about the final goal or the beginning that
matters, but the current forces that we are part of, that drive the various
systems that we are a part of… our understanding of systems is really
an understanding of the forces that move and drive the systems in our life…

be those systems biological, mechanical or natural…
biological is the biological systems like human beings and dogs
the mechanical is cars and airplanes
and the natural is the solar system and the planet…

and we can see/understand systems as the embodiment of
processes at work……

to point this into some perspective, it isn’t about the beginning or the end,
but about the process at work at any given time………

Marxism is about the process that happens in human society
and religions are about the process that happens in a theological sense
and science is about the various processes in a natural sense…
we see biology as a study of the process of life
and we see astronomy as the study of the process of the stars
and we can relate every single discipline to the study of
some process or another that our senses can find or discover…

experiences that we have… they are simply another example of
engaging in the process of human existence… we relate experiences
in terms of the process of being human……

nothing, but nothing stays the same, nothing is permanent
but everything is simply just a stage of process…

going from one place to another… and does that process have
a plan or is engaged in intelligent movement from one step to another?

no, as evolution is a process but a random process…
but we humans can engage in processes as intelligent
change/process…….

as evolution is a process that changes… but we humans can
take process and intelligently change it…take
politics for example… that politics is a process cannot be denied,
but we can engage in politics with specific and rational changes
that improves our existence…

so by understanding process and systems, we can engage
with certain process and intelligently adapt and change
systems/processes to improve our lives……

and that understanding processes is called…… philosophy…

Kropotkin

Blessed are the peacemakers…Jesus…

and who do we, as a country, bless?

certainly not Jesus… for we have forsaken his message…

so, who do we bless?

I have been to Washington DC… and what statues or moments do
they have there?

why they the Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial,
along with the Vietnam memorial and the Jefferson memorial… the FDR memorial
along with the American veterans disable for life memorial…and look at the
connection that all these memorials have?

Why, each of them is about war… we have plenty of wartime moments
and each city or state around the country has plenty of wartime memorials…

but very little about the peacemakers… where is the MLK memorial in D.C?
I didn’t even know that there was one until I looked it up… its in the West Potomac Park,
next to the National mall………

so think of the other blessed peacemakers in America?

where are their statues and moments?

Can you even list 10 peacemakers in American history?

and that is the problem…

we can list the men of wars and see their moments
but who has advocated for peace? who has been the peacemakers
of America?

for a country that has been in conflict over 90% of her history,
we could use someone who has advocated for peace, instead of war……

Kropotkin

I have been trying to think of some American peacemakers
and not many names have come to mind……

we celebrate war hero’s with movies and statues and streets
named after them……

but why war instead of peace?

Why does America engage in war rather then peace?

As we clearly don’t give a shit about traditional religion
or theology like Christianity or Catholicism… because we don’t
follow or obey any type of religious precepts… love your fellow man…
in America love thy fellow man as long as that person is white, Anglo-Saxon,
wealthy, American… a poor person of color who loves differently isn’t loved
and isn’t even welcomed into this country…… the parable of the good Samaritan
is rewritten to include only those who fit a certain criteria and fit into certain
prejudices and habits and superstitions and myths……

so why is war so favored over peace?

the bottom line of favoring profits/money over people’s life…

as money is our true religion, our true god…… that is the goal to achieve,
certainly not God’s word or to become a better person…

to reach the holy land and become a better person…

that is clearly un-American…why reach heaven when I could have a
BMW or a second vacation home in the Hamptons… that is the priority…
not achieving some phantasmagoria of heaven or improving oneself…

thus we reach why America would rather have war instead of peace?

the pursuit of profit… the nihilism of money over people…

peace would require that we put people ahead of money/profit and
god forbid we ever do that…that would cost us our bonus money…

Kropotkin

if humans have a superpower, it is the amazing act
of denial… what me, I never did that…

there are those who read the last post and think, nope, not me,
I believe in god and I will go to heaven… even though you have
never given a second thought to the real meaning of religion
or what it means to go to heaven or even becoming a better person…

the parable of the good Samaritan is something other people do,
not you… but that infinite practice of denial allows you to escape
responsibility for actions, taken and not taken………and therein lies
the human capacity to avoid taking responsibility for our actions or inactions…
our superpower as it were………

I am saved without doing anything or believing in anything…

the power of human self deception cannot be overestimated…

we deceive ourselves all the time over many things, great and small…

to dress this up a bit… we are engaged in self deception to avoid taking
responsibility for our actions and this self deception is allows us to
behave inauthenticly……without any thought to our real selves…
we say one thing and act another way…

and example is “I say I am Christian” and yet I want those who bring food and water to
immigrants in the desert to be punished… to be punished
for acting Christian…that is what that amounts to… to be punished
for acting upon the words of Christ…for being a good Samaritan…
one should be punished…

that is being inauthentic… your words fail to match your actions…
and that is what denial brings us to… being inauthentic to who we
really are…

the amazing superpower of people will mean they will never be able
to connect my words of engagement with who you really are and
what you claim to be…

and this inauthenticity we have individually, also exists collectively…
we American hold ourselves to be that shining city on the hill,
a beacon of light and goodness for the entire world to see and emulate…
we have failed that test, time and time again over these last 20 years…
when we torture people, when we put children into concentration camps,
when we punish people for being food and water to immigrants in the desert…

we are no longer that shining city on the hill, that is a beacon of hope and
light for the world to emulate…and yet, we still believe that we that
city on the hill… the power of denial is America’s greatest superpower……

and until our words and actions match, we shall be lost, alienated,
disconnected from ourselves and the world…….

what are you words? and do your actions match your words?

that is the great question of our time, both individually and collectively…

Kropotkin

you’re scaring me with all this buddha and jesus talk, pete. it’s a sign of exhaustion and surrender. i seen it before, many times. you gotta believe me when i tell you the only reason that shit has stuck throughout history is because it proved to be useful by those in power in their efforts to make the ruled class more manageable. all religions, from paganism to monotheism, emerge from within a practicing caste system in which the governing political structure overseeing the material relations between people has taken, and preserved, the form of a exploitative hierarchy. for the greek peasant working a farm twelve hours a day, the opiate was a friday night dionysian festival where he could get drunk and dance around naked with the aristocrats that got rich off his labor (class divisions were temporarily suspended for such festivals). a little catharsis to keep him happy. for the american grocery store produce manager named pete who works eight hours a day, the opiate is critically rethinking the role and purpose of guys like buddha and jesus. what you want is a substantial raise, dude… not salvation. same thing with the greek guy. but these sonsabitches have made you believe that there is something more to life and that rather than take up arms against em, you could just as well settle back in your chair with a good book on eastern mysticism and/or professor so-and-so’s introduction to the life and works of jesus christ.

you need to stop asking what jesus the spaced out hippy would do and start asking what kropotkin the anarchist prince would do.

K: you misunderstand me on so many levels, one has to be patient with my answers…
I am engaged on several fronts here…

I am challenging the great America problem of how our words and actions don’t match…
we have become alienated, diconnected from society and ourselves because of this
diconnect between our words and our actions… I am guilty, you are guilty, we are guilty…
individually and collectively… our words don’t match our actions and that is a real problem…

second, exhausted? surrended? Not at all… I have simply shifted my focus onto other
matters…matters that should matter to you…

third: I am speaking of the things that mattered to Kropotkin, anarchist prince…
he wrote about decentralised communist government based on mutual aid, mutual
support and voluntary cooperation…he advocated peace… anarchism has two
differnent and diverse schools of thought, one, the violent school… overthrow
the government by violent means… and violence has never accomplished anything…
but the other school of anarchism which flowed from Jesus is the non-violent
anarchism that has been followed by Kropotkin, Tolstoy, Gandhi, MLK among
others… I am walking in their footsteps… following the path of non-violence
to accomplish societal change by changing the minds and hearts of those within
society…you want to change society… begin by changing yourself…
match your words with your actions…begin to think about how to better yourself…
think about what it means to be human… begin to investigate the Socratic
method of “know thyself”………ask yourself about your values and are they
they values you need to become yourself…and become the values you are…
match your words with your actions…

that is the heart of and the meaning of my questions… I have not gone south
or have surrender… I am simply asking my usual questions from a different
standpoint…

Kropotkin

it is late, although not 3:00 AM late,
and I am tired and I hurt to the point of not being able to
sleep…so here I am……

In thinking about my exchange with Promethean, he wondered if
I had “surrendered” or was “exhausted” because I had shown weakness
in expressing the desire for peace or love… we have become such a
martial society, that calling for peace is considered a sign of weakness
or having “surrendered”…real men don’t call for peace, we use terror
and violence to uphold the peace… peace based upon the use of violence
or the potential use of violence… think John Wayne… the very definition of
an American… and a user of violence and intimation to enforce the peace……

to think a man weak because he calls for peace… is that what the
American definition of a man is, one who uses violence or has
the potential of violence? if one proclaims for peace, is he less of a man?

a peace based upon violence or the threat of violence, isn’t really peace,
it is the absence of violence with the threat of violence always present…

that isn’t peace………

according to 75, I must be weak or have surrendered or am exhausted
to want to call for peace or to call for love… it is just another
way of saying, what a wuss… he wants peace and love, instead of
what “real” men want, which is the threat of violence or violence itself…

How do we understand what it means to be a man or an American
or a human being, given that some expectations for a man, involve
violence or the threat of violence……. and apparently, our
expectations for an American also involves violence…

but given that America is a violent society with our being at
war over 90% of America’s history, we are a martial society…
one that is comfortable with violence and with the threat of violence…

and what of Men like Gandhi and Jesus and MLK, who have declared for
peace and love? are they not men because they call for peace and love?

to proclaim a man’s role is a violent role is to make men a myth, a stereotype,
a prejudice……. a “real” man doesn’t engage in peace or call for love,
no, a “real” man engages in violence and the threat of violence…

must we understand men in terms of our lower animal instincts?

the lower instincts of violence and hate and anger and lust and greed…

are these “men’s” instincts?

we can and must learn to engage as people in those higher instincts
of love and peace and hope and charity… not because they are male or
female instincts, but because they are the higher human instincts…
our better nature or our better angels as it were……

and in doing so, we are not engaged in “Male” or “female” traits,
but in human traits and with human instincts…
being male or female no longer matters if we engage in
the higher instincts of love and peace and hope and……

it is enough for us to find our higher human self instead of becoming
a better man or a better women…….

Kropotkin

for some, it is because their words do match their actions that they become so alienated and estranged from society. others, who neither have to say or do anything substantial, remain in a trivial tedium by comparison. for such people, matching or not matching words to deeds is of no great consequence and hardly noticeable at all. but all this is relative, though; i don’t mean to depreciate the importance of people saying what they mean and doing what they say… only that for most people, this wouldn’t prove to be a great discrepancy. if words and deeds are trivial and insignificant, what matters whether or not they match? see what i mean?

and here again:

regarding myself, there is such a beautiful irony here that i don’t want to touch it.

what if a fellow came along who had not only found that violent disobedience to the state was necessary and warranted, but that such violence would also achieve more in correcting the negligence of the state than any peaceful reform ever would… and even by accident? lol @ that irony! what if an anarchist fellow, who had no interest in ‘bettering’ the state, took to his personal revenge against the state (as a result of some betrayal at the highest level) which incidentally resulted in affecting greater change than would those deliberate actions of the peaceful (who were not betrayed) ever would? the former, completely indifferent to the effects of his deeds for the whole of society, happens to accomplish by accident as a result of his own personal war, what the latter, who makes a genuine concerted effort to change society, fails to accomplish because of the impotence of their deeds. is this not a glorious irony, bro? shirley you see it. one does with a trifle concern and with half the effort, what the other sets out to do, but fails, with the greatest of concentration and twice the effort.

for the former, what he accomplishes amounts to an effortless favor… to throwing a few scraps to the people; your war is not my war, and what i do is not for you, but my victory will incidentally be your victory too. take whatever you want when i’m done here.

absolutely not, provided that he was capable of and prepared for war… that he actually was in danger of war… that he had something to lose. only under these circumstances can the resolution to be peaceful have any substance or currency. i’m afraid that too often those who call for peace are incapable of anything else… and then demand to be noticed for their virtue. ha!

“Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.” - nietzsche

regarding myself, there is such a beautiful irony here that i don’t want to touch it.

75: what if a fellow came along who had not only found that violent disobedience to the state was necessary and warranted, but that such violence would also achieve more in correcting the negligence of the state than any peaceful reform ever would… and even by accident? lol @ that irony! what if an anarchist fellow, who had no interest in ‘bettering’ the state, took to his personal revenge against the state (as a result of some betrayal at the highest level) which incidentally resulted in affecting greater change than would those deliberate actions of the peaceful (who were not betrayed) ever would? the former, completely indifferent to the effects of his deeds for the whole of society, happens to accomplish by accident as a result of his own personal war, what the latter, who makes a genuine concerted effort to change society, fails to accomplish because of the impotence of their deeds. is this not a glorious irony, bro? shirley you see it. one does with a trifle concern and with half the effort, what the other sets out to do, but fails, with the greatest of concentration and twice the effort.

PK: once again, you spin tales in the air without any examples…as I was anarchist for
many years, of the non-violent variety, I have learned that violence isn’t the answer
to what ails society… over the last 200 years of violence against the state, exactly
how many times has violence been successful in generating change in the state?

75: for the former, what he accomplishes amounts to an effortless favor… to throwing a few scraps to the people; your war is not my war, and what i do is not for you, but my victory will incidentally be your victory too. take whatever you want when i’m done here.

PK: if one proclaims for peace, is he less of a man?
[/quote]
75: absolutely not, provided that he was capable of and prepared for war… that he actually was in danger of war… that he had something to lose. only under these circumstances can the resolution to be peaceful have any substance or currency. i’m afraid that too often those who call for peace are incapable of anything else… and then demand to be noticed for their virtue. ha!
“Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.” - nietzsche
[/quote]
PK: ahhh, a Nietzschian… now this hot mess makes sense… my first
philosophical position was as a Nietzschian… oh, how I loved to dream that
I was the ubermensch and how far above the herd I was… and as I grew older,
I realized that had Nietzsche lived long enough, he would have
rejected his entire philosophy as childish drivel…

the urge to violence is the urge to obey the lower, animal instincts…
to destroy is the instinctual urge of a child in the throes of those animal
instincts, nothing more…it is easy to destroy and commit violence…
it is the natural, instinctive action that we all have…

the reason Jesus says, “blessed be the peacemakers” is because
to seek peace means you have to rise above your natural instincts
of violence and destruction…to seek peace means you are becoming
a human being, not an animal with animal urges/instincts…

to seek peace means you seeking cooperation and participation and
collaboration and reciprocity… you are seeking the higher creative
level of being human…a man seeking recompense in violence
is not a man at all, but an animal on two legs…

we humans, we are far too comfortable and at ease with our violence,
we must turn to becoming just at ease and as comfortable with
the higher levels of being human and that means becoming
comfortable with peace…the path of peace is the path to
order, unity, love, unity, concord………the path of violence is the
path to discord, disharmony, disorder, harshness, disorganization,
confusion…………

we cannot achieve peaceful order from violent means…

as a man, I am learning to become comfortable with peace…

I have learned that if I engage in violence, then I engage with my
lower, instinctual, animal self… I forsake my higher human level…

It isn’t a question about Nietzsche’s babbling about those without claws…
for if one lives in a peaceful world, claws aren’t needed…

seek peace and love with the vigor that others seek violence

blessed are the peacemakers…the ones who seek peace and love…

Kropotkin

to continue on…

look at our economic system, capitalism… it is a martial version of
our political system… which is war by other means… capitalism is
about economic warfare… it isn’t a peaceful system of economics…
it is about conquering the enemy by economic means…

“to the victor, goes the spoils”

and the spoils in our martial economics is profits/money…

and thus we see that our entire way of life socially, economically,
politically is one of warfare, violence, anger, greed, lust… the
lower human instincts…

to hold to the anarchist economics of cooperation, mutual aid,
voluntary means of political system…is to hold to the higher,
human level of organizing a system…

people hold to systems as being like social darwinism… which
is the survival of the fittest system of economics, political,
social systems… but is a system of the wealthy/powerful holding
all the cards, really a system which brings about the greatest good
and value for all people? No, no it doesn’t… it certainly benefits
those in high places but doesn’t do jack for anyone who isn’t
strong or wealthy or powerful…

I hold that a system that doesn’t benefit all, doesn’t benefit anyone…

either we are about all the people or we are about none of the people…

competition isn’t the answer to our problems, but cooperation is
the answer…

we cannot hold to martial values be it socially or economically or
politically… the only possible answer lies in this particular statement…

“We the people in order to form a more perfect union…”

competition or social Darwinism or surrender to the values of
animal instincts cannot aid or help “we the people”……

the values we hold as a people, martial, violent values no longer
have value in this modern world… they had their place and use
at one time, but that time has passed… we must adapt and change
with the changing situation we find ourselves in…

and today, we find ourselves in a cooperation, mutual aid part of
human existence… perhaps tomorrow in another situation and
place, we find ourselves in a martial, violent place and we must
react with the appropriate response… but not today…
we must react to each different situation with the necessary
response…

you cannot answer different questions with the same answer…

Kropotkin

ask yourself, what is religion? what is philosophy?
what is science? what is history? what is economics?

they are means of understanding the world around us
and by understanding, we can then create our response
the world… if we see the world as violent, we would react
violently, but if we see the world as being peaceful, we
react peacefully…

our political system, our economic system are violent,
cruel, vicious systems… and thus we react to the world
in a violent, cruel, vicious way…
but, but is the world really violent, cruel, vicious?

No, no it isn’t…

and that is the great paradox of the modern world…

we are reacting in the wrong fashion to our world…

we are mistaking perception for reality…

is the world a violent, cruel, vicious world?

Only if we make the world a violent, cruel, vicious place…

we are the creators of our own world, we are the creators of our own
values, we are the creators of our reality……

take control over your own reality, take charge of your own values…
become your values…….

if you take control over your reality and find it a violent, cruel, vicious
place, then you have been taken in by your own lower level instinctual
values… the animal values that we all have… if you see the world as
being of peace, love, charity, then you are following the higher values
of being human, not the lower values of being animal…

Kropotkin

Peter,

Nietzche was either an inadverdant mimic, or was capable to transcend that and reindulged in an ironic way to express his overvaliation referentially, to give the impression that he was the shaker and mover, but in actuality holding to the contrary: begging for a Devine reappearance, to save himself through his conscience.

He was really seeking to scare people as to what Dostoevsky meant by proposing what would happen if He did reappear, he would be crucified again.

Historical determination can not possibly not recure, it is implicit in the mind’s harmony, but not explicit in the mind’s eye.
I know this may not appear as comforting , but the cruxifixtion’s metaphor extends the irony You pointed out, by leaps and bounds, that only miracles can evoke.

Therefore , the focus should be on ideas that do the right thing, rather then accept the face value of a washed out materially returned ironic
Intent to will a manifest power of acquiring value in terms of the substance of said material.

Nietzche must have known that this contradiction would have the forceeable sacrifice through the depths of the underworld , through which he needed to travel, whereby everyone who believed in Him, mist see the depth looking back .
He knew this scintilla of a spark of an eigenblick, would be and must be the price by which the Father’s ire be resolved.
This certainty is hotly contested,to this day, and maybe AI at one point can .

I am with You unavoidably, to correct what o really suspect as an injustice pf historical misinterpretation.

Don’t hold it against me, at.one point You gave me carte blanche to post.
If You disagree with this assessment , I will delete it , or, let it stand as a testament to a differing interpretation .

Meno, you do have carte blanche to post as you see fit
and I have no problem with any interpretation you might
see fit to post……. post away…as does anyone else can
post as they see fit with any interpretation as they see fit…

However it doesn’t follow that I have to accept or agree with any
theory or interpretation that comes this way…

Kropotkin

I did, I did. The post was a kind of synopsis to a epic trilogy that you haven’t yet seen.

So I think it’s time for me to tell you a story, pete. But I can’t tell it here, so I’m sending a car for you. You’ll be driven to one of my cafes on the east side of town. I will be there waiting for you.

K: curious, I just spent the last 3 days waiting by the driveway for that car…
Ummm but no one showed up…you must have forgotten about me…

anyway, a minor family crisis brewing…my daughter just got a new job which
she hates…so, she already made a decision to leave, but she was looking
for answers as to how… fine, so I made a few suggestions…it was clear
that she was making decision without any context to her life… it was
an isolated decision make without any regard to any other aspect of her life…
and I was trying to incorporate philosophy into her thought process…
she was having nothing to do with philosophy…she wanted to maintain
a very narrow focus on this job and this job only…but that brought about
some thinking about philosophy…philosophy is about theory but not about the
practice of life… think about philosophy… we have various theories about
philosophy… ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, metaphysics, logic, political,
but these are philosophy studied, not lived…
and that is the problem with philosophy… it is studied, but not lived…

until we incorporate philosophy into our lives, we approach problems just like
my daughter did… on an ad hoc basis…ad hoc solutions are temporary, improvised
methods to deal with a particular problem…

ad hoc solutions are non-generalizable and not intended to be able to
be adapted to other purposes…

what does it mean to be a man? we can have ad hoc solutions, a man is someone who
… but is that answer a temporary, improvised solution?
or, or we can finally answer the question, what is a man? in clear, definite
words that explain and understand what a man is… today, yesterday and tomorrow?

but Kropotkin, you have stated numerous times that an ad hoc understanding
is all we get in life…life is temporary, transient… and that temporary nature
in life extends to our understanding of what a man is?

different situations require different solutions… that is ad hoc by its very
definition………… you contradict yourself…

just like when we understood that good and evil are two distinct and different
things and then we begin to understand that good and evil are two sides of the
same coin and then we understand that good and evil are the same thing……

a contradiction can leads us to a solution if we understand it correctly…

Kropotkin

a scorching day on the west coast
can’t find relief in any way
coming from the stylist
hair is looking sharp

turn the corner and the street is blocked
police cars with lights on
fire trucks with sirens
ambulance all blocking the street

parked in front of my building
the action is on the other side of the street
by the old man who fought in a war
which one I couldn’t tell

the stretcher came out
and the old man was on it
decades ago he survived a war
there is no defense against growing old

I had planned a quiet evening at home
just thinking about the Kantian questions
but that is thinking about theory
here I was faced with reality

one of the 4 sufferings of the Buddha
birth, old age, disease and death
of the four, I am most acquainted with disease
it has haunted my life since birth

old age recently found me
every day it reveals a new side
when I pronounced old age to be this,
old age denies and says, I am that

if someone asks me
what is old age?
my answer
will be swift and sure…

old age is the constant pain in my hip
and old age is forgetting where my keys are
and old age is discovering how slow I’ve become
and old age is the gradual retreat from the bustling world

and the last of the Buddha’s sufferings
is death…
and what is to become?
seeing long lost faces or a quiet sleep into eternity…

I don’t know………… I don’t know
would I say I am haunted by death?
no, no… I wouldn’t say so
I am seeking as to what is next…

as we grow old
the future closes the doors
the dreams of yesterday quietly become silent
growing old means we have but only one door left

when I was young, the possibilities were endless
door after door after door was open to me
I had choices beyond possibilities and dreams
old age presents me without choices or possibilities

my choices narrow until one day, a very hot day
the street will be closed off by an ambulance and firetrucks
some kid will see me surrounded by medics and fireman
taking me on my final ride to a death with dignity

death with dignity…
all death with dignity means is
I expire without drooling
and perhaps, perhaps that is all I can hope for……

to die without drooling…
death with dignity

Kropotkin

now some might say, Kropotkin, you are being morbid
Kropotkin, you are being sad and depressing
Kropotkin, cheer up and join the living
smile and dance and drink the night away

but I say, why not face up… to what is to come
I don’t need to be in denial about death
if I am honest about what has been my life
I should be just as honest about what is to come

but those without courage will say,
but nothing will change, but nothing will change
and they are right and so what?
in death, will it matter if I am right or wrong…

in death, will it matter that I know all the presidents
and all the state capitals and the population of London?
that the earth is 93 million miles away from the sun…
will that matter as I take my final breath?

as I face my final moments, what will matter?
what faces will come to mind and
what moments will bring a smile
and what will be my regrets?

as I take my final breath,
will all the books I have read matter?
when I take my final breath…
what will really matter…

all those experiences that have made Kropotkin, Kropotkin,
will they matter anymore?
as I breath my last,
what will be my final thought?

will my final thoughts be the Kantian/Kropotkin questions
or will it be the regrets of my life
or will it be the trips of my lifetime
or will my final thought, be of my wife……

or are my final thoughts like this:

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more: it is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing”

Kropotkin

galaxies spinning in space
star rotating
planets revolving
earth spinning around and around and around

think of all that life moving
migrations, immigrations and our daily commute
life in a constant dance of movement from here to there
striving, reaching, struggling constant movement.

define life one might ask
change, development, movement, action…
hustle, motion, industry, response…
ceasless activity that lasts a lifetime and beyond

and here, today I practice
idleness, respose, inertia, inactivity…
I am anti-life… practicing my indolence
all that motion of life… is making me dizzy

one of the questions I have asked
upon what should we spend our energy on
should it be mindless, ceasless activity?
perhaps we should be mindful of our energy spent

for even here in silent rumination
the planet spins
and the earth rotates
and the stars travel to unknown places

taking me along with them
my meditation has journey to distant space
without me ever moving a muscle
engross in reverie and still moving

I have no more ambition left in me
I cannot think of anyplace to be
progress… doesn’t mean a thing to me
voices becomes background noise

as I sit here
life intrudes from all directions
noise, light, action, request for tea,
cats begging for food

it is hard to muse and meditate
when the world is demanding attention
my only claim is for peace and quiet
why is disorder and commotion…life

where is the quiet needed for
introspection and reflection
how can I hear myself think
in the midst of all this… life

how do I engage in these questions of mine
when life itself demands my time
how do I find peace and quiet
when life comes at me from all directions?

How indeed…

Kropotkin

I have read “western” philosophy and I have read “eastern” philosophy
and I have read Marxist history and I have read Greek history
and I have read English poetry and I have read Japanese poetry…

we define and label and organize our readings and our days
and our lives into labels and definitions and categories……

one might categorize Kropotkin as Marxist and old and senile…
I am not the labels you wish to make me…
I stand outside of any categories or definitions you wish to put on me…
just because it is easy to label or categorize or define a person doesn’t
mean that person is how you label or categorize or define them…

what is the difference between “eastern” philosophy and “western”
philosophy? a label, a category, a definition……
labels and categories are simply artificial terms we use to define
something… to label something…

there is no difference between eastern philosophy and western
philosophy except for the focus or the viewpoint of the philosophy…

both seek answers to questions that we have because of the existential
questions we have from being born………

I am born and by being born I am faced with questions…
“what am I to do?” “what should I believe in?” “what should I hope for?”
these questions face every single human being regardless of when or where
they were born…

you… yes you too face these existential questions
of human existence…

and philosophy and books and plays and music, we see and hear and read are attempts
to answer these existential questions of human existence…

so it doesn’t matter if the book we are reading says “Oriental Philosophy”
or if it says “Western Philosophy” or says it about political philosophy
or economics or history or a biography… all of these books attempt to
answer the fundamental questions of human existence, the existential
questions that we face because we exists………an answer is an answer
regardless if that answer is posed by a man or women or an American
or a Frenchman or currently living person or one who has been dead
for centuries or someone from the east or west… because
think about it… even the term east or west is artificial
because east or west depends on where we are standing at that moment…

our labels and our categories depend on where we are standing
at that moment…a label that makes sense at one moment
doesn’t make sense if we change our viewpoint…

to say I am reading a book about eastern philosophy only
tells one I am reading a book about philosophy from China
or India or Japan… It doesn’t tell the important story
of the answers that those people found in regards to the
existential questions that arise at birth…….

we like to label and categorize people and idea’s for our
benefit and our convenience… that labeling and
categorizing doesn’t change the other ideas, meaning or purpose…

to return to an old idea… the Nietzschean idea of becoming
who you are… to become who you are isn’t about the labels
or categories you might find yourself being listed in…

to become who you are rises above such petty idea’s as labels
and categories… what does it mean to be a western philosopher
as a label or a category when one find the values that
define who you really are… to become who I am, means
I have found values that are me… I no longer have or hold values
that are someone else’s values or society values that were
indoctrinated into me as a child… America holds martial,
violent values that aren’t me… as long as I hold those American values,
I am participating in the label and category game…
but as soon as I forsake indoctrinated values and begin to
hold values that I have found or selected or hold and use
those values to define who I am, then it no longer matters
if those values are eastern or western or American or French
or Chinese or male or female…

the labels and categories we hold only define us if, if
we reach those values through our own discovery
of those values…….

Kropotkin